music students
Showing 23 items.
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Photographic spread of San Francisco State Teachers College’s A Cappella choir (established in spring of 1934) under the direction of Music professor Roy E. Freeburg. The first officers were Richard Coughlan (president), Eilene Barrett (vice president), Eleanor Berbant (secretary), and Eugene Corbett.
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Photographic spread of the College Band that was organized in 1931-1932 academic year under the student direction of Gene Minzenmeyer to perform at football games. Roy Freeberg joined the Music faculty in fall of 1932 and reorganized and expanded the band that was finance by the Associated Students. Walter Peck and Elmo Wemmer served as representatives and Sociology student Carlo L. Lastrucci was the student leader. Lastrucci led the College Band’s unique outreach efforts to recruit the best music students in public schools throughout California. Later, Lastrucci taught sociology at San Francisco State and authored a pioneering jazz study, “The Professional Dance Musician,” published in the Journal of Musicology in 1941.
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Photograph of the San Francisco State College Band rehearsing in uniforms. Students and faculty worked closely together in the Music Federation to develop and finance campus outreach concert tours. The Music Federtion provided San Francisco State’s best public relations during the Great Depression because extensive concert tours of California high schools became venues to attract the most spirited students as well as student music teachers to visit school to look for jobs. The College Band performed at football games and recruited students at high schools throughout California.
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Photographic spread of the College Carolers first organized by Music professor Mary Weaver McCauley in 1930. The Carolers alternated with the Madrigal Singers for weekly broadcasts on the Western NBC radio network.
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Photograph of the College Chorus established in fall of 1930 with over 100 music students by Mary McCauley and Eileen McCall as the accompanist.
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Photographic spread of the College Theater Orchestra under the direction of Chester Beck. The College Theater Orchestra was an extra-curricular activity for music students and they accompanied productions by the College Theater. The concertmaster was Elroy Barton.
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Hidden among members of Alpha Mu Gamma (International Honorary Language Fraternity established in 1936, San Francisco State Colleges’s megawatt diva Florence Quartararo (1922-1994) is pictured. Alpha Mu Gamma attended the opera “Samson and Delilah,” among other activities. Quartararo was born in the San Francisco Bay area. Through friends, was discovered by Bing Crosby, who auditioned her and put her on his Kraft Music Hall program, under the stage name of Florence Alba, and she appeared on the program four times in 1945. Quatararo returned to San Francisco State as a celebrity fundraiser. Quatararo retired from a promising career at the Metropolitan Opera in 1951 to marry famous Italian opera singer Italo Tajo.
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Photographic spread of the Frederic Burk Orchestra organized during the 1932-33 academic year as a means for San Francisco State music students to get teacher training experience under the supervision of Florence Alexander at the Frederic Burk Training School for a nominal fee. Some of the student teachers included Chester Beck, Haig Kafafian, James Snyder, Sidney Wills, Jack Murphy, Nicholas Biedove, Henry Brubeck (older brother of Dave Brubeck), and Arthur Willis.
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Photographic spread of the Madrigal Singers organized by Music professor Eileen McCall as the first group on the West Coast devoted to studying the English madrigal and performing Tudor vocal music. They alternated with the College Carolers for weekly broadcasts on the Western NBC radio network. The Madrigal Singers were so widely respected that they traveled to Stanford University to perform and teach Stanford students about early music. Officers included Alice Madden (president), Albin Bergstom (secretary), and Chester Beck (concert manager).
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Photographic spread of the Men’s Chorus organized in spring of 1931 and was added to the curriculum. Under the direction of Music instructor Irene Nicholl, the group performed at several events.
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Photograph of the Men’s Glee Club that included modern repertoire (swing music) into its programs. Established in fall of 1940 with Victor Lewin as first president, Music professor Raymond L. White conducted the group. A program on April 29, 1941 included a swing arrangement by Leighton Edelman (spring 1941 president).
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Photograph of students in the Composer’s Workshop at San Francisco State College, which was part of the Music Federation. Music professor Wendell Otey directed the group that met twice a week to discuss musical compositions by students and to play compositions with their own instrumentation.
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Photographic spread of the Music Federation, which was organized in 1931 to replace the Sigma Mu music student organization. In cooperation with the music faculty, the Federation organized all programs for college activities requiring musical talent, including assemblies, rallies, club meetings, teas, dinners, and broadcasts. That year, Music professor Eileen McCall organized the Madrigal Singers, the first group on the West Coast devoted to studying the English madrigal and Tudor vocal music. They alternated with the College Carolers for weekly broadcasts on the Western NBC radio network. The Madrigal Singers were so widely respected that they traveled to Stanford University to perform and teach Stanford students about early music. The faculty involved with the Music Federation included Dr. William Knuth, Roy Freeberg, Mary MaCauley, John Gianacos, and William Zech. In 1931, William Zech (1869-1950), a local violinist, joined the Music Department at San Francisco State. Zech formed the Zech Orchestra prior to the 1906 earthquake and fire, and the group evolved over a thirty-year period gaining a reputation for fostering professional musicians in the area. In 1935, the Zech Orchestra consolidated with the San Francisco State College Philharmonic Orchestra under his direction. Federation officers included Edward White and Chester Beck (presidents), Alice Madden and John Murphy (vice presidents), and Lavadna Hill and Mildred Roof (secretaries).
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Photograph of the San Francisco State music groups including the College Symphony, chorus, and A cappella choir performing a Christmas Oratorio at the Congregational Methodist Church. The campus was so cramped that music performances and classes were held in nearby churches.
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Photograph of the first "Orchestra Club" at San Francisco State Teachers College in spring 1926. The Orchestra Club was organized during the 1925-1926 academic year with the following members: Emma L. Nash (conductor), Ethel O’Farrell (violin and concert mistress), Doris Malitz (violin), Ethel Torwick (violin), Ruth Hafer (violin), Claire Mullen (violin), Dorothy Eichenwald (violin), Kathleen Montgomery (violin), Eva Archer (viola), Evelyn Elster (piano), Bessie Sur (flute), Dorothy Tesch (clarinet), Ethel Byrne (trombone), Frances Misch (banjo), and Vida Setencich (drums).
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Photograph of the Music Federation Student Sinfonietta organized in the fall of 1934 under the leadership of Armand LePort. James Chesnut (president) envisioned the group appearing for various functions on short notice as well as performing student compositions.
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Photograph of the String Ensemble established by Mrs. McCauley in November 1927. First violin, Vivian Walsh (Class of 1930), was a typical student who studied education as well as music. Other members included Esther Gilbert and Leah Boehm (second violin), Maynie Del Pipher (viola), Emma Nash (bass viol), and Dolores Gilfether (accompanist).
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Photographic spread of the String Quartet organized in fall of 1931 to study works of the masters of quartet composition. Under the direction of Music instructor William F. Zech, the group performed at several joint concerts with the Madrigal Singers. Members included Elroy Barton (first violin), Alice Mercer (cello), Haig Kafaffien (viola), and Sidney Willis (second violin).
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Photographic spread of the San Francisco State College’s Student Hour Concerts featuring the Orchestra, College Theater Orchestra, College Band, the piano duo of Doug Kidd and Howard Brubeck (older brother to Dave Brubeck), Eileen McCall at a historic spinneret that she purchased for the College in Germany, Jim Chestnut and Lou Morrison performing a concerto, Carleton Peters playing the piano, and Bee Zisser and Connie James playing on duo pianos.
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Music classes were spread throughout College Hall on the Buchanan Street campus until April 1935 when Music Annex B was opened. It soon garnered the name Music Alley and came alive with music day and night. Sherman Grant first coined the phrase "Music Alley" in his column "...Afterbeats..." in the Golden Gater on February 9, 1940. Music Alley came alive with music day and night as students practiced everything from classical music to the latest jazz. In 1947, the first studio of the Radio Department was established and student broadcasters announced, "broadcast news" to the campus via loudspeakers mounted on the roof.
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Photographs of Norman Zech (son of Music Professor William Zech) and Howard Brubeck (older brother of jazz great Dave Brubeck) who led San Francisco State College’s Music Federation in fall of 1938 and spring of 1939 respectively. The Music Federation was an umbrella organization for all of the student music organizations and controlled all of the music events on campus. Norman Zech was string teacher and orchestra director of the College Music Federations’s Summer Music Workshop that provided music instruction to San Francisco high school students in 1938 and 1939.
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Photographic spread John R. Handy III working with San Francisco State College students who are professional musicians to do a series of jazz concerts held in November and December 1963. Handy started his association with San Francisco State in 1952 first as a student (earning his B.A. in Music in 1964) and then as an instructor teaching a special course on the Development of Jazz Improvisation and later teaching in the Black Studies Department.
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Photograph of San Francisco State College "Gator" Vince Guaraldi who attended State during the early 1950s when jazz was in the curriculum and his trio performing at an Associated Students "Thank God It’s Friday" concert. Guaraldi's drummer Terry Granelli was a San Francisco State musician that assisted John Handy in presenting jazz to the Music Department's Recital Hour program in fall 1962.